We made it! 2021 is here, but this moviegoer doesn’t think things will be back to normal for quite a while. With that said, here are Reality Breached’s most anticipated films of 2021.
Every year we scour the release schedule and declare the movies were are excited to watch in the coming months. With Covid-19 decimating our traditional movie-watching experience, we expect many of the movies on this list to miss their release date and/or get released to a streaming platform or two.
We had so many movies last year get punted into 2021 that this year’s list has many familiar faces. But just because we may be tired of talking about them, doesn’t mean we aren’t excited to see them. Without further ado, let’s jump into our list and see what’s on Hollywood’s horizon.
Morbius – 3/1/2021 Delayed until 1/21/2022
A holdover from 2020, Morbius is in the can and ready for release. Assuming theaters are ready for them, Sony has a packed release schedule this year. I stand by my previous statement that Jared Leto playing a Vampire is a good idea, and the oft-rumored Spider-man ties to this film have my appetite wet, but I’m beginning to have my doubts about this movie actually being good. We’ll see. More on Spider-man a bit later, what happens in his film this year will likely be the lynchpin of Sony’s efforts for years to come.
No Time To Die – 4/2/2021 Delayed until 10/8/2021
Another holdover from 2020, No Time To Die, didn’t make our list last year. However, the recent launch of our podcast series Debriefing and Cocktails has me focused on James Bond in ways I never have before. Daniel Craig’s 007 movies have been a mixed bag and seeing him sunset his run with the character has me intrigued. The only question that really remains is, will the final Craig film be delayed yet again?
Bob’s Burger’s: The Movie – 4/9/2021 Removed from the Release Calendar
Other than the release date, nothing has changed since last year’s list. We literally have no trailer or no further hard details on Bob’s Burgers: The Movie, so here’s my write up from last year, as it still 100% applies…
“The only detail that exists for the highly anticipated Bob’s Burgers film, is that it’s a musical. The Fox TV show is not a musical, but fans of the show know music is in its veins. Bob’s Burgers developed a cult-like following once it became the third pillar of Fox’s Sunday night animation block. The announcement of a feature film is as exciting as it is predictable. The TV show has always been a more family-friendly affair than its Sunday partners Family Guy and The Simpsons, so it will be interesting to see the direction the film team takes with the possibility of more adult humor. Regardless, the movie will be opening to a strong built-in audience that is constantly hungry for what Bob and his family are serving.”
(Trailer Coming Soon)
Black Widow – 5/7/2021 Delayed Until 7/9/2021
2020 saw no MCU movies get released despite Disney’s bold move to drop Mulan to Disney+. Since Covid’s hit, Disney has announced a heavy release schedule for their hit new streaming platform, but have stuck to their guns on maintaining MCU movies’ theatrical releases. Black Widow was one of the earliest films to see a delay last year and could be one of the first films punted even farther into the future. Hopefully, things are close to normal by the time summer is here, and Natasha Romanov can finally have her day in the spotlight.
Godzilla vs. Kong – 5/21/2021 Pushed up to 3/31/2021
During the 2020 lockdown, I finally got around to watching the Godzilla and King Kong films that lead up to this mega-crossover and now, I am officially hyped for it. Seeing as it comes out in less than 5 months and we don’t have an official trailer yet, I’m starting to doubt it will actually hit HBOmax on-time. I know a lot of film-makers were upset by Warner’s announcement that all major films would hit their streaming service, so it’s possible the creative team is working on a deal to keep this one off the Max and maybe punt it even farther down the road. Note: It’s being reported that all parties are close to a deal, that will keep the HBOmax release intact. That’s a lot of speculation, but not having a trailer will cause speculation to run rampant. Additional Note: Warner’s surprise HBOmax announcement has really thrown a wrench in 2021’s news cycles and unfortunately keeps us focusing on the business end of these conversations rather than the significantly more fun creative end.
Free Guy – 5/21/2021 Delayed Until 8/13/2021
Nothing much has changed with this one since its delay, so here’s last year’s write-up on this 2020 hold-over. “Not technically a Comic Book movie, nor a Video Game movie, Free Guy looks like an opportunity for Ryan Reynolds to play himself in the most ridiculous world the creators could possibly think of, a generic open-world video game. Upon first viewing, the trailer for Free Guy feels like a really expensive SNL sketch. It’s funny, well-edited, and effectively tells the core story arc of the movie. If this trailer was released as a quick short film parody of how stupid modern Hollywood movie premises are, it would have hit the nail on the head. How they turn this into a full-length feature is where the real difficulty comes in. Luckily, as a long-time fan of Ryan Reynolds, who is willing to watch him in pretty much anything, this movie is right up my alley. With the full power of Disney behind it, Free Guy could be a huge hit, or it could be another John Carter.”
F9 – 5/28/2021 Delayed until 6/25/2021
Universal was very quick to delay F9 (Fast and Furious 9) when the lockdown hit. I guess their thinking was that without a proper box-office release F9 wouldn’t make financial sense, especially since the series does extremely well in foreign markets. Its got a strong trailer and a VERY Fast and Furious-like plot-line. Unless the public has grown tired of Dom and fam, this one should be a guaranteed hit. I’m extremely excited to see the return of fan-favorite Han and equally interested to see how they’ve resurrected him. Universal has not made any announcement of major Hollywood films being dropped on their outlet, Peacock, so I don’t see this one hitting a streaming platform. That is of course assuming one of the big players doesn’t fork-out major cash to make it happen. Still…very unlikely.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife – 6/11/2021 Delayed Until 11/11/2021
Afterlife is another Sony film that could be huge or suffer heavily from the lingering effects of Covid. It’s also another one where last year’s write-up remains 100% accurate. Here it is, “Regardless of how you feel about the female reboot, fans did not show up for the 2016 flop. After that, the assumption was that we wouldn’t see Slimer and friends any time soon. However, with a refocus on the story of the original movies and Jason Reitman (the son of the original director) helming a soft reboot/continuation, Ghostbusters fans may actually have something to be excited about. Sony is being very cagey with details on who’s actually in the film but the grand assumption is that all three surviving actors will be back. After watching the trailer the only thing I’m worried about is the tone. The original films were comedies at their core and were defined by their New York setting. The trailer shows a rural town with a more horror/mystery tone. This isn’t a critique of quality, as the film looks, at the very least, super-intriguing.”
Most of the rest of the films on this list don’t have trailers and I totally understand why. Every marketing dept in Hollywood is doing their best to launch campaigns on-time for maximum exposure, but not knowing what will be canceled or delayed is making it VERY hard to pull the trigger on releasing trailers.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage – 6/25/2021
During the wild events of 2020, I legit forgot about Venom 2. Now that I’ve double-checked the production status of the film, It’s good to see that it’s been filmed and should be ready for release. After the surprise success of the first movie, a lot is riding on Venom: Let There Be Carnage. We’ve heard no hard news on the status of Tom Holland or any other version of Spider-man having a cameo, but we do know that Sony is chomping at the bit to get their Spidey-verse up and swinging. I don’t know how the delays have affected the order of the stories they are telling, but Sony has a lot to lose if this year’s Spider-man plans fail. I hope whoever they have spinning the plates, can find an elegant way to merge everything they wish to merge. Again, more on Spidey a bit later.
(Trailer Coming Soon)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – 7/9/2021 Delayed Until 9/3/2021
In addition to the 6 MCU shows that should hit Disney+ this year, we’ve got 4 movies that are supposed to be in theaters. The second of these is Shang-Chi. Much like the upcoming Eternals movie, I don’t know much at all about Shang-Chi. 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians proved that an all-Asian fronted film could be successful and it looks like Disney was paying attention. There’s some serious overlap in the casts of that movie and Shang-Chi. Like Guardians of the Galaxy before it, I trust Marvel Studios to make great films so, despite my general distaste for martial arts movies, I am still quite ready to see an MCU entry in the genre.
(Trailer Coming Soon)
Uncharted – 7/16/2021 Delayed until 2/11/2022
Yet another Sony film, Uncharted is based on the immensely popular video game franchise of the same name. In development hell for over a decade, the stars have finally aligned and we finally get to see Nathan Drake on the big screen. The game series is notable for having cinema-quality story development and cutscenes, so many fans have been nervous to see a proper film adaptation. The film has been in development so long that Mark Wahlberg who was originally cast to play lead Nathan Drake, has since been cast as Sully, Drake’s middle-aged partner, and mentor. The story is supposed to be somewhat of an origin for the Drake character, with the young Spider-man star Tom Holland, playing a green version of the Indiana Jones-like treasure hunter. As a huge fan of the games, I don’t know about the Holland casting. I like the actor, and I love his other performances, it’s just hard for me to picture his scrawny frame as the rough and tumble Nathan Drake, but I’m willing to give it a try.
(Trailer Coming Soon)
The Suicide Squad – 8/6/2021
My respect for James Gunn is really the only reason the DCEU’s only movie this year makes this list. (I’m not counting the Justice League Snyder Cut as a movie. 1, It’s a mini-series, and 2, it shouldn’t even exist.) The first Suicide Squad wasn’t great, with arguably the only highlight being Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn. DC’s sloppy connected universe and their penchant for cutting and running when something isn’t working makes it hard for me to fully commit to anything they’ve produced over the years. Sure Joker was good, Shazam was great and Aquaman, and Wonder Woman, have proved there’s some gas in the DC tank, but Wonder Woman 1984 was a bore and the JL Snyder Cut, seems like a sad attempt to breathe life into a universe that’s on life support. The Suicide Squad is a movie that doesn’t need to exist, and I feel like if Gunn hadn’t gotten fired by Disney, it wouldn’t, at least not in its current form. The previous Suicide Squad movie directed by David Ayer was a huge hit for DC. This prompted the existence of a sequel, but this isn’t really a proper sequel, so it leaves me to wonder exactly who is this movie for?
(Trailer Coming Soon)
Dune – 10/1/2021
I don’t know much about Dune. I know my mom really likes the original sci-fi classic and I know I’ll be watching it before the new one gets released. I know the novels and the original movie are both highly respected pieces of Science Fiction. With all of that said, Dune is another movie Warner is planning to release directly to HBOmax. Legendary Pictures, the production company behind the film, has other ideas and has entered a negotiation to possibly keep the movie off HBOmax. Despite the headlines surrounding its release, Dune is getting a lot of positive buzz, and since the film was been delayed out of 2020, we have a trailer!
Eternals – 11/5/2021
I’m gonna ask the same question I asked last year. Who the **** are the Eternals? For our purposes here today, they are the 3rd MCU movie of 2021. That’s assuming everything goes as planned. Sporting the most diverse cast the MCU has ever seen, Eternals is based on the comic of the same name. With very little name recognition, Eternals is an inherently risky release. To double down on the risk, Eternals has a lot of hot actors on the come-up, but arguably the only real “star” is Angelina Jolie. “What about Selma Hayek, Sergio…huh?” Hayek is a big star but she hasn’t carried a hit movie in quite a while. Is the public ready to watch a bunch of no-names front a superhero ensemble? We’ll see. Seeing how ripped Kumail Nanjiani got for the role, has me thinking there’s going to be some major action and I’m completely down with that.
(Trailer Coming Soon)
Spider-Man: No Way Home 12/17/2021
Here’s the Crown Jewel of 2021, Spider-man 3. No movie has made more news this year, and no movie is shrouded in more secrets than Spider-man 3. After dramatic negotiations and multiple announcements, this should be Tom Holland’s last MCU movie. It’s a follow up to Spider-man: Far From Home, and is rumored to have ties to a multiverse of Spider-men, similar to what was seen in Into the Spider-Verse. Both Tobey Mcguire and Andrew Garfield are rumored to return as their versions of Spidey, and it’s been confirmed that Jamie Foxx and Alfred Molina are returning as the villains they played in previous Spider-man universes. And finally, Benedict Cumberbatch will be featured in the film as Dr. Strange. My theory is that Sony has found a script that will gracefully write Tom Holland out of the MCU and into another “universe” and Spider-man’s sudden exit from the on-going MCU story won’t be clumsy. It makes sense for Dr. Strange to be there, as his next movie is named Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and it’s scheduled to be the next MCU movie after this one. Everyone wants to know casting details and supposed on-set pics are being passed around. I don’t know why drama follows the Spider-man franchise, but I am here for all of it and I’ll be first in line to see his final MCU adventure play out.
(Trailer Coming Soon)
The Matrix 4 – 12/22/2021
I can’t even begin to imagine how a 4th Matrix movie starring both Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss can happen considering both their characters died in The Matrix Revolutions. I’m sure they’ve found some ridiculous, loop-holey a way to bring them back. Of all the films on this list, The Matrix 4 is the one I’m most worried about. It doesn’t seem to be a film anyone really wants, and despite the original Matrix movie being a certified classic, all other Matrix media, while profitable, has failed to meet expectations. I hate to call this film a cash grab, but the Wachowskis output has been waning in recent years and their last two projects Jupiter Ascending and Cloud Atlas failed to garner wide audience appeal. The Matrix 4 has Lana Wachowski venturing into the series without the help of her younger sister Lilly. Additionally, with both Wachowskis coming out as transgender, will this influence the underlying message of this new movie, and will that affect audience opinion? So many questions and we don’t have so much as a trailer yet. This film could turn out amazing, but until further details are released, you can paint me skeptical on this one.
(Trailer Coming Soon)
There it is, Reality Breached’s 16 most anticipated movies of 2021. Hopefully, things will be getting back to normal soon, but with the country’s Covid numbers spiking, and an estimated 60% of traditional theaters still closed I can definitely see this schedule being thrown out the window very soon.